1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a both-side recording apparatus capable of both-side recording on a recording medium reversed from one side to the other side in an automatic reversing section, and further relates to the above-described both-side recording apparatus having a first sheet passing path continuing from an automatic sheet feeding section to a recording section, and a second sheet passing path continuing from the recording section to the recording section again through the automatic reversing section.
2. Related Background Art
Various methods have been conventionally carried out or proposed for the ink jet recording apparatuses for performing automatic both-side recording. In each of them, after recording onto a front surface (front side) of a recording sheet, the transferring direction up to this time is reversed to feed the recording sheet into a front and back reversing device, then, after the reversing operation is finished, the recording sheet is transferred in the same sheet transferring section, and recording is performed onto the back surface of the recording sheet in the same recording section. Among these methods, as in the inventions disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-270633 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-059599, an automatic sheet supplying section and a sheet reversing section are placed at an upstream side of a sheet feeding roller, the sheet passing paths from the both sections are branched or merged at some midpoint, and integrated in the vicinity of the sheet feeding roller.
However, there are several restrictions in the above described prior art examples. Namely, in the invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-059599, the sheet passing path continuing from the sheet feeding roller to the sheet reversing section is bent due to the restriction of the size of the automatic sheet supplying section, and there is the possibility of preventing smooth transfer of the sheets. Especially in the recording apparatus using ink jet recording, there is the possibility that friction occurs to a recorded ink portion and the recorded result is stained, when the recording sheet abuts to the wall surface or the like of the sheet passing path before the ink landing on the recording sheet is completely dried. There is also the possibility that through put is reduced since a long time for drying is required to prevent the recorded result from being stained.
In some conventional recording apparatuses, the distance from the recording head and the recording sheet is adjustable in accordance with the thickness and shape of the recording medium, but the adjustment is manually performed, and is not linked with the operation of the sheet transferring mechanism. Since the spring for bringing the pinch roller into pressure contact with the sheet feeding roller is fixed at the support point, the load varies in accordance with the linearity of the spring when the thickness of the recording medium changes, and the load received by the sheet feeding roller driving means varies. Since the recording medium is transferred in both directions, the construction of the detection lever for detecting the presence and absence of the recording medium is complicated, and there is the possibility of reducing the detection position reliability. When the recording sheet is caught by the sheet feeding roller again from the sheet reversing section, the lead (guide) for the tip end portion of the recording sheet is insufficient, and so-called registration (positioning) sometimes becomes inaccurate.